One thing with the phone call. At first it wasn't clear that people in the room could hear what Walt was saying but clearly they could. Surely Marie knows what was said was untrue so will she hold this against Skylar ? I am guessing Jesse doesn't know that much about Skylar's involvement so it's Marie who knows. I am thinking Marie now believes Skylar was coerced to some degree + she's the only family Marie has left.

Despite obviously wanting to see how it ends I am not left desperate for next week like I have been the last few. No specific cliffhanger.

I wouldn't worry about Walt on the side of the road, that was really just a plot device, you had to see him there to know where he had gone. It seems odd though that such an efficient "Disappearing" service would give him a new ID with the same birthdate !!!.

Mostly forgotten this week but Lydia needs to factor into the resolution. She can't just be forgotten about.

(Not sure if you're serious, but...) I was wondering about the baby. It was pretty obvious that the verbal stuff was dubbed. I wonder if there was any computer enhancement on the facial expressions? Because that scene did seem far too perfect for, well, somebody who is pretty much incapable of taking direction.

I thought the same thing. If it was really a baby saying those lines they must have spent many hours getting her to do it or they lucked out and found a baby who is a great mimic. More likely, I think, is that they dubbed her voice and the mouth movements were just normal babbling. If you've seen those "ridiculously bad lip reading" videos you know that your brain gives a lot of leeway on matching mouth shapes to the sounds that are supposedly coming out of the mouth. As long as some phonemes match the corresponding mouth shapes you let a lot of mismatches go by.

One thing with the phone call. At first it wasn't clear that people in the room could hear what Walt was saying but clearly they could. Surely Marie knows what was said was untrue so will she hold this against Skylar ? I am guessing Jesse doesn't know that much about Skylar's involvement so it's Marie who knows. I am thinking Marie now believes Skylar was coerced to some degree + she's the only family Marie has left.

Despite obviously wanting to see how it ends I am not left desperate for next week like I have been the last few. No specific cliffhanger.

I wouldn't worry about Walt on the side of the road, that was really just a plot device, you had to see him there to know where he had gone. It seems odd though that such an efficient "Disappearing" service would give him a new ID with the same birthdate !!!.

Mostly forgotten this week but Lydia needs to factor into the resolution. She can't just be forgotten about.

She doesn't know that though - even moments (hours?) before at the car wash, Marie expressed her opinion that she was sure that Skyler had been coerced to some degree.

I really like the Todd character. Every bit as rotten as his uncle, but with just a glimmer of remorse that is constantly being subdued by the needs of the present.

You just know he saved Jessie (it puts the lotion in the basket) to impress Lydia by getting her higher quality product.

This has been the most satisfying final season to any show I've ever watched.

Agreed. I can't think of any other show that has consistently gotten better each season. Most other shows either start going downhill or at best level off.

As sad as it might be that the show is going to be over soon, at least it is ending on a high note instead of at a point when we are all tired of it. And as we feel the pain of losing the show, I'm sure the cast and crew are feeling the joy of finally being able to talk about it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hank

Hardly. Calling 911 on his crazed father he just found out is a wanted drug lord and responsible for killing Uncle Hank, saying Walt pulled the knife... and that's "breaking bad"? Please.

It doesn't matter how bad his father is, that doesn't justify lying to the police. The whole point of the show is that the ends do not justify the means. He wanted the police to go after his father, and did not want to implicate his mother at all. That's why he altered the situation to make her completely innocent in all of it. He was willing to lie to protect what was left of his family.

That lie is what made Walt realize that he had completely lost his son. And while it paled in comparison to what he had done, I think he saw a part of himself in his son, and that scared him. I wonder if his phone call to Skylar wasn't just about giving her an out, but also painting himself as such a bad guy for his son to ensure that he would not go down a similar path.

...It doesn't matter how bad his father is, that doesn't justify lying to the police. The whole point of the show is that the ends do not justify the means. He wanted the police to go after his father, and did not want to implicate his mother at all. That's why he altered the situation to make her completely innocent in all of it. He was willing to lie to protect what was left of his family.

That lie is what made Walt realize that he had completely lost his son. And while it paled in comparison to what he had done, I think he saw a part of himself in his son, and that scared him. I wonder if his phone call to Skylar wasn't just about giving her an out, but also painting himself as such a bad guy for his son to ensure that he would not go down a similar path.

I still wouldn't call that action "breaking bad". Yes, he lied, but that's FAR from "breaking bad"...

Rewatching the phone call..
<snip>
That phone call is one of the all time great scenes in this series.

One of the greatest scenes of one of the greatest episodes of one of the greatest series ever. When an episode physically moves you, it worked. A visceral gut-wrenching hour.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkeegan

One final thought before going to bed..

(And this is NOT a defense of Walt.. just a defense of character consistency)

After rewatching it, the harsh harsh harsh act of not only executing Jesse but also rubbing salt in the wound by telling him about Jane can be seen as a pure rage lashing out by Walt because of what has just happened.

He was tricked by Jesse to drive out into the desert. He was betrayed by Jesse who went to Hank. Hank (a member of his family) was just killed. And now Walt is losing most of his money to guys with swastikas on their hands. All of that happened as a result of Jesse calling him to the desert. Because of that call, Hank is dead now. Rage.

Before he ordered Jesse's death but said he was like family and to make it quick and painless. Now he wanted it to hurt - because of rage.

I think that the fact that it's RAGE that makes him tell Jesse about Jane (rather than it being "Walt is just pure evil now - that's all he does") makes other scenes still possible (like him saving his family on that call). I find it far more compelling to see Walt as someone who's done awful awful things but still thinks the same way that others think, rather than that he's become some unrecognizable foreign monster of evil that no one can even slightly comprehend.

G'night.

Agree. This show would have been over if Jesse had just shut up. Heisenberg is retired, Meth Damon is cooking, Saul gets his spinoff, Skyler becomes a car-wash tycoon, yada yada. Jesse's inability to STFU caused ALL of this. Hence Walt's rage. RAGE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Deficit

WOW! All I can say is that this is how you end a great show!!!

And to think we have two episodes left!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonsterJoe

I think Heisenberg/Walter White is my favorite TV character ever. What do you do after this if you're Cranston???

I read an interview with him a few weeks ago, and he talked about how this has turned into the greatest character he will ever play. He knows he will never find a role like this again, that sometimes lightning strikes, and he was lucky enough to be there when it did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by danterner

Also: while it may sound odd to say it, I thought Holly did some mighty fine acting in this episode. Normally, small children totally kill the moment, for me (e.g. Harrison, on Dexter - that kid couldn't act his way off a treadmill). But in this episode, Holly totally nailed her performance.

I wouldn't worry about Walt on the side of the road, that was really just a plot device, you had to see him there to know where he had gone.

Plus, we don't know how long he had been waiting. I imagine that he didn't roll the barrel there himself, so he must have gotten dropped off (most likely by Saul or one of his men). And since the "eraser" was known for his punctuality, he could have been dropped off less than a minute before we saw him sitting there.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Saul in the next episode. Hank and Gomez taking Huell is going to put the DEA's focus on him even if Huell and Skylar don't talk. So I wonder if Saul is also going to go into hiding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB1000

It seems odd though that such an efficient "Disappearing" service would give him a new ID with the same birthdate !!!.

There are only 365 days in a year, so having the same birthday wouldn't make it any easier to find him. And conversely, having a different birthday wouldn't add any additional protection if other things led to him. Thus, he might as well keep the birthday he is familiar with.

I was amazed that, with every law enforcement official looking for Walt, he was able to sit on the side of a street with bags (and a barrel full of money) and NOT be noticed....in broad daylight. I don't know how long he was there, but it had to be awhile since Holly was dropped off at night, and he was picked up during daylight...

My list of nit-picks:

1. Walt sitting on side of fairly main/busy street while the entire city is looking for him. [Perhaps was only a few minutes and Saul's guys drove pick-up away]

My big and only issue with this episode is that Skylar just took Marie's word that Walt was arrested and then told Junior. Is she really that dumb? What happened to "trust but verify"

I guess you can claim that she just plain "knew" Marie wasn't lying, but still no proof for something that HUGE and she just out and tells Junior right then.

Just as Walt was fooled by Jesse's phone call about finding and burning the money because he was called to action before he could calmly process what was happening, Skyler was compelled by Marie's assertiveness in her claims. She knew that she hadn't seen Walt since he ran from the car wash in a panic, and she had just left him a message on the cell phone when Marie arrived.

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There's no way the baby's 18 months old. Walt turned 51 in the pilot, when Skylar was still pregnant (as seen in the flashback). He's 52 in the flash forward, so this is sometime late that year. At best, Holly's got to be 11 months old.

I'm firmly of the belief that this is how Family Ties should have ended.

Greg

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There's no way the baby's 18 months old. Walt turned 51 in the pilot, when Skylar was still pregnant (as seen in the flashback). He's 52 in the flash forward, so this is sometime late that year. At best, Holly's got to be 11 months old.

My big and only issue with this episode is that Skylar just took Marie's word that Walt was arrested and then told Junior. Is she really that dumb? What happened to "trust but verify"

Marie wasn't giving her a choice. If Skylar didn't tell Flynn, she (Marie) was going to do it. Now, in retrospect, that may have been better, because Flynn might well have been less likely to accept Marie's news, as surely even he knows that she blows things out of proportion etc. Skylar could have just sat there and said "I have no idea what she's talking about".

Either way, I'll echo the masses and say this was really an intense episode.

I think he turned 50 in the pilot... because he turned 51 in the middle of the series when Skyler begrudgingly broke the bacon on his eggs for 51.

eta: I really doubt the show runners would make a gaff as big as that in this show.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HoosierFan

He was actually 50 in the pilot.

You know, you're right. Carry on.

Edit: Dunno what I was thinking, even the episode is titled Fifty One. It sounds like 18 months is right on track.

Greg

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Oh no, you're much nicer looking than chopped liver. I guess I didn't see your post, sorry about that.

Meanwhile, Aaron Paul posted this to Instagram earlier with a spoiler alert tag. I guess I better tag it.

Spoiler:

Greg

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